I know this promotion is over now and it was only for a week.. but what is the business decision to try something like this? Four games for five US dollars? I'm sure steam has to get a cut too (however marginal) so Introversion is (was) basically giving it away for free.. perhaps it was a loss leader serving as a 'teaser' for marketing and promotion (word of mouth, getting the brand/name out there) in which case it would probably have made sense. For one thing the recent uptick in players online on defcon servers has been nice. I remember paying full price $45 for Uplink CD back in high school, and though I never got into Darwinia or whatever its called, I recently bought a copy of Defcon for PC and someone on here was kind enough to give me another key that he had purchased back a while ago for servers but never used. Had I known this ahead of time I would have bought a lot of defcon copies to give away to friends. This is just as an aside tangent and a general observation, it seems that on all fronts the embattled PC gaming platform is dying and being increasingly replaced by the console brethren and now the i-whatever fads.. Ever developers like John Carmack abandoned ship and went strictly "consoles-only" because that is where the market is and where the money is. The last great graphical eyecandy game on the PC was Crysis by Crytek, and even they started pimping out their wares for the console bandwagon. I supposed Steam is what keeps Introversion afloat so you guys can't bite the hand that feeds you .. but it seems PC gaming is a bygone era, even for bedroom programmers.. everyone has moved to porting their apps and games to other platforms.

Barbarossa wrote:Ever developers like John Carmack abandoned ship and went strictly "consoles-only"

Whut? Where? When? Isn't Rage coming to the PC, and isn't it going to be the best looking version without the need to swap disks in the middle like the XBox version likely will require, with full resolution (instead of lame-o-720p) rendering, all provided you have the right hardware?

And yeah, such sales do two things:
- they sell the game to people previously on the fence, people who would not buy the game at regular price
- they generate more word of mouth advertising because the people buying the game will tell their friends, potentially too late for them to also catch the sale
- anthology sales are good service for fans who would like to complete their collection and thus increase brand loyalty
Three! Three things.

Barbarossa wrote:Ever developers like John Carmack abandoned ship and went strictly "consoles-only"

Whut? Where? When? Isn't Rage coming to the PC, and isn't it going to be the best looking version without the need to swap disks in the middle like the XBox version likely will require, with full resolution (instead of lame-o-720p) rendering, all provided you have the right hardware?

And yeah, such sales do two things:- they sell the game to people previously on the fence, people who would not buy the game at regular price- they generate more word of mouth advertising because the people buying the game will tell their friends, potentially too late for them to also catch the sale- anthology sales are good service for fans who would like to complete their collection and thus increase brand loyaltyThree! Three things.

You are correct about the details (pertaining to Rage) but my statement earlier was basically trying to underline the general trend of shifting paradigms from PC gaming to console and now tablet, portable, mobile gaming.. PC gaming is what made developers like Carmack (Doom, Quake, etc..) and yet they are increasingly abandoning it.. IMHO Crysis is still the best graphical looking PC game out there (and what was back in 2007!) and originally Crytek released it as a PC exclusive.. but due to their alleged lack of sales due to 'piracy' (yes piracy was a factor, but I think it had more to do than that, perhaps the gaming base was already on consoles and no PC game would ever do as well in terms of sales revenue as its heyday back in 95-98 era) they next version (which to me was just an expansion pack) was dumb-ed down for the xbox360 and when developer has to concentrate or design for multiple platforms of course its different from if they put 100% into PC.. I understand from the high level its all a business decision, companies target markets where there is monies to be made. Free market competition means everyone has to jump on the bandwagon just to survive or stay in place. Even Microsoft abandoned their very successful and hugely money making Flight Simulator franchise of nearly 3 decades! Sad to say, PC is dying on all fronts, and not just pertaining to gaming.

2. they generate more word of mouth advertising because the people buying the game will tell their friends, potentially too late for them to also catch the sale

Yes I think #2 point is very well made. They can't really do this kind of promotion for too long because then people who were willing to pay the full price would just take advantage and not have to. That' s how coupons work as well, it takes care of the demand elastic side of folks who could do without, but since the majority of people don't use coupons the demand inelastic group are still paying full price. So by doing it only for a week, they have got most of the "fence people" without cannibalizing too much revenue from others who would be able and willing to pay the full price. Bottom line, the company is doing whatever it thinks is in its best interest (maximizing total revenue and profits)

I'll say! I had not heard of these games before, but my boyfriend has played all of them. He bought the package for himself and me (for $5 I probably would have bought this myself anyways even knowing nothing of the games), and I'm sure some of his friends nabbed it, too. But I love all these games! They're so fun and addictive. I've recommended them to my other gamer friends who haven't played it yet and re-sparked interest in people who have played but not for years. Even now, after the sale, I recommend this game.

I think it was a great move, being Subversion is coming closer and closer to its release, any NEW or OLD members/customers to the IV community will be great for when SV is released. (At full price)

So in short-term. It brought a little money into the well needed pockets to keep all of IV's projects running like they want.
In long-term it just might have increased the sells of SV if even slightly.

Barbarossa wrote: Crytek released it as a PC exclusive.. but due to their alleged lack of sales due to 'piracy'

I suspect with Crysis the problem was a lot more to do with the fact that the minimum specs required to play the game were/are stupid. Something Valve seems to get much better, their games still look pretty good on the highest settings but also run well on the old crappy hardware.